Snow-covered sandbags in the parking lot of the Sound Beach Fire House in Old Greenwich, Thursday afternoon, November 8, 2012, are a reminder of a week of wild weather during which Greenwich was hit with the one-two punch of a hurricane and nor'easter.
Photo: Bob Luckey

A snow-covered fallen tree in front of a Lockwood Avenue home in Old Greenwich, Thursday afternoon, November 8, 2012, are a reminder of a week of wild weather during which Greenwich was hit with the one-two punch of a hurricane and nor'easter.
Photo: Bob Luckey

Marty Carver of the Weather Channel coils cables after broadcasting...

Western Connecticut State University freshmen Sarah Chavin of New Milford, left, and Sarah Bojnec of Torrington, build the first snowman of the season on the university's midtown campus Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012.
Photo: Michael Duffy

Western Connecticut State University freshmen Sarah Chavin of New Milford, left, and Sarah Bojnec of Torrington, build the first snowman of the season on the university's midtown campus Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012.
Photo: Michael Duffy

To get out of the cold and snow, Maryrose Julian, left, and her friend Andrea Bazan enjoy some pizza after work at Beverly Pizza in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport, Conn. on Wednesday November 7, 2012.
Photo: Christian Abraham

A meesage telling Hurricane Sandy to go away still adorns a wall of...

A bobcat operated by Paul Laudine, of Fairfield, makes its way along Fairfield Beach Road in Fairfield, Conn. on Wednesday November 7, 2012. Laudine was using it to put sand dunes back at people's homes after they had been washed away by Hurricane Sandy.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Xavier Thomas who works in Greenwich, wears a scarf as he heads up Greenwich Avenue during the nor'easter that hit town, Wednesday, November 7, 2012. When asked to comment about the storm, Thomas said, "I like the snow."
Photo: Bob Luckey

Snows from the nor'easter fall on a storm damaged home, in the process of being raised in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, in the Point Beach neighborhood in Milford on Wednesday, November 7, 2012.
Photo: Brian A. Pounds

"We should have clear skies Friday with temperatures in the high 50s ... We got a warm front coming through Saturday that might give us some cloud cover but no precipitation. And Sunday should be sunny with temperatures in the low 60s."

But wait, there's a cold front coming through sometime Monday night or early Tuesday that will bring some showers.

"But it's nothing significant," Stark said.

That's good news for the local power companies.

Late Thursday afternoon, Connecticut Light and Power was dealing with an equipment problem at the New Canaan Avenue substation. Around 3 p.m. Thursday, 4,000 Norwalkers were without power. All were restored later in the evening.

United Illuminating crews were dealing with a downed wire in Fairfield that knocked out power for 453 customers around 5 p.m.

Michael West, UI's director of corporation communications, said as many as 14,000 customers in their service area were without power during the peak of the nor'easter Wednesday.

"We quickly restored 13,500 by morning," he said.

Both West and Mitch Gross, a CL&P spokesman, said the crews sent from out-of-state power companies to help with storm damage from Sandy and the nor'easter were on their way to New York and New Jersey to help with outages in those states.

"We're sending 60 CL&P crews to ConEd in New York to help out there," Gross said.

If wonderful weekend weather was not good enough news for the weary, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced the newly renovated service plaza on the northbound side of the Merritt Parkway in Fairfield will reopen at noon Friday, providing gas and food.

"It is important that we make as many fueling locations available as we can, especially in Southwestern Connecticut, which sustained back-to-back hits from these two storms," Malloy said. He said the service plaza also has full generator capabilities.

The southbound service plaza remains under reconstruction and will open within the next couple of months, the governor said. This week's plan to close the Merritt Parkway service plazas in Greenwich on both the northbound and southbound sides for renovations is being delayed until after Thanksgiving to minimize the impact on travelers looking for fuel and food, Malloy said.

An influx of motorists from New York and New Jersey have been driving to Connecticut to fill up.

New York City, Long Island and New Jersey have imposed odd-even day gasoline rationing to deal with fuel shortages and long lines at gas stations. Motorists whose license plate ends in an odd digit or a letter are allowed to buy gasoline only on odd-numbered calendar days.

As a result they are coming to Connecticut.

State Police Sgt. Mark Grasso, of the fire and explosion investigation unit, said last weekend he received calls from three different agencies dealing with this issue, some filling unapproved containers.

"Orange intercepted an individual who purchased 35 Home Depot `Homer' five-gallon pails, filled them with gasoline at a Valero gas station and loaded them into a Nissan Quest minivan," Grasso said. "Stratford intercepted a similar situation with individuals filling unapproved, plastic, 55 gallon containers, and Bethel intercepted an individual filling spring water bottles."

On Monday, Mohd Awawdeh, 35, the owner of the Shell gas station at 1139 Post Road in Fairfield, was charged with violating the state regulation regarding the transport of flammable liquids after two men were observed filling up 55-gallon drums of gas in the back of a pickup truck at his station. Police said the two men told them they worked for a New York trucking company and needed the gas so their trucks could run.

They were not charged, and the gas was poured back into the station's tank.

Justin Tyrell said he had stopped at the gas station to buy cigarettes when he saw the men pumping gas into the barrels and called police.

"It was definitely strange what they were doing, and I felt it wasn't safe," he said. "I was afraid they were going to put everyone else on the road in danger if they were allowed to leave. One small incident and it would have all been over."

Wednesday's nor'easter dropped anywhere from 11.5 inches of snow in Monroe to 5.5 inches in Ansonia. Seymour and Orange received 9 inches; Bridgeport 8 inches, Trumbull and Oxford 6 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

The snow was laden with water, making it heavy to shovel but easy to build snowmen.

That's exactly what the Pagliaro children in Trumbull did on their day off from school.

Their snowmen resembled an electric company lineman complete with hardhat, fluorescent gloves and blue jacket. Michael, 14, Kristen, 12 and Caroline, 8 added a sign that read: "Thanks UI and CL&P for all your hard work during these storms!!!" Their father, Jim, works for CL&P.

The heavy snow and slick roads caused superintendents in such places as Ansonia, Derby, Milford, Monroe and Seymour to cancel school Thursday, while Bridgeport, Danbury and Stamford officials imposed 90-minute delays.

State police said two drivers were killed in separate accidents in East Granby and Lebanon.